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Oakland A's to SA? Not Gonna Happen

San Antonio's 'Mister Baseball' is not optimistic that the Oakland A's...or any other big league team, will set down roots in San Antonio any time soon, Newsradio 1200 WOAI's Michael Board reports.

Several city officials in the San Francisco Bay area are mentioning San Antonio and Montreal as the two most likely places for the As to move if they can't reach agreement with Alameda County on a new facility.

"Nobody has made any contact with us, and, quite frankly, if anybody does they're going to have to prove that they're serious," County Judge Nelson Wolff said. "Baseball doesn't have a wonderful reputation for that right now."

The A's are embroiled in a major dispute with their home town officials over whether to build a new stadium, and who is going to pay for it.

Wolff is the leading baseball source in the region. A long time semi-pro and adult league player, Wolff has written a book on baseball, and is a prominent student of the sport. The San Antonio Missions Double A team plays in Nelson Wolff Stadium on the city's west side.

But Wolff said the first thing San Antonio would have to do is to build a downtown stadium.

"The chances are very slim right now," Wolff said of the A's or any other team relocating here. "Possibly in the future, when we are tied to Austin, we could become a major league city, but right now, I don't have a lot of confidence in Major League Baseball."

San Antonio, with it's booming population, has long been a valuable asset for professional sports owners to point to as a likely destination for their team if local officials don't do what they want. It is a strategy which has been employed by many franchises over the years to convince local officials to build or pay for new stadiums.